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turmoil among the races and attempts to murder him. Gaston evades the plot and decrees that the
city’s Republican leadership and the “ Negro Anarchist” editor must leave the city three days
before the November election in order to end Negro rule and lawlessness. His terms are
accepted and executed in a peaceful manner, but “ a mob of a thousand armed Negroes concealed
themselves in a hedgerow and fired on them from ambush, killing one man and wounding six.
Gaston formed his men in line, returned fire with deadly effect, charged the mob, put them to
flight, driving them into the woods.” 46 In Dixon’s portrayal, the white army represents law and
order, whereas the black mob typifies the disorder of Fusion rule. The Red Shirts appear in
Dixon’s novel as “ a spontaneous combustion of inflammable racial power that has been
accumulating for a generation.” 47 Dixon portrayed racial violence as a natural response to
perceived political and social oppression which, according to southern collective memory, was
unleashed by Northerners during Reconstruction and resurrected by the Republican- Populist
Fusion government in the 1890s.
Dixon articulated a version of events similar to the popular narrative. Written to clarify
Northern confusion about the postbellum South, Dixon idealized the riot, omitting the political
coup and justifying the bloodshed as a response to black aggression. Retold in Dixon’s
nationalistic and imperialist language, the Wilmington Race Riot became a crucial event in the
nation’s history. 48
The Wilmington Race Riot received little attention over the next century. Despite the
absence of discussion, the riot was not forgotten. The Leopard’s Spots reinterpreted the defeat of
the Fusion government and the disfranchisement of African Americans as an essential part of
sectional reunion and national progress. The Civil War, Radical Reconstruction, and Fusion
politics were uncharacteristic periods in Southern history, and whites resorted to whatever means
necessary to restore the traditional racial order. This restoration was integrated into the cultural
landscape in North Carolina. Catherine W. Bishir noted the far- reaching cultural changes
underway in Raleigh and Wilmington after the “ Revolution of 1898.” Architectural tastes and
the commemoration movement emphasized continuity, harmony, and, perhaps most importantly,
Anglo- Saxon authority. Newly built homes reflected the popularity of the “ Colonial Revival”
style that linked the Old and New South in the minds of their owners, “ captur[ ing] in modern
terms the symbols of that glorious past.” Confederate memorials marked the landscape around
government buildings. Public ceremonies to dedicate these landmarks provided an articulation
of the meanings intended by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Colonial Dames
of America. These developments reiterated the belief that the Civil War, Reconstruction, and
Fusion politics were temporary disruptions in southern history, characterized by Anglo- Saxon
supremacy. The violence that occurred in Wilmington in 1898 slipped into the background, but
whites resurrected the memory of the bloodshed in order to quell dissent within Wilmington’s
African American community. For example, when North Carolina Governor Joseph Broughton
attended the launching of the Liberty Ship John Merrick in Wilmington in 1943, he raised the
46 Dixon, The Leopard’s Spots, pg. 414- 416.
47 Dixon, The Leopard’s Spots, pg. 419.
48 Andrews, Literary Career, pg. 184- 185; Gunning, Race, Rape, and Lynching, pg. 31; Wilson, Whiteness, pg. 121-
122.

425
turmoil among the races and attempts to murder him. Gaston evades the plot and decrees that the
city’s Republican leadership and the “ Negro Anarchist” editor must leave the city three days
before the November election in order to end Negro rule and lawlessness. His terms are
accepted and executed in a peaceful manner, but “ a mob of a thousand armed Negroes concealed
themselves in a hedgerow and fired on them from ambush, killing one man and wounding six.
Gaston formed his men in line, returned fire with deadly effect, charged the mob, put them to
flight, driving them into the woods.” 46 In Dixon’s portrayal, the white army represents law and
order, whereas the black mob typifies the disorder of Fusion rule. The Red Shirts appear in
Dixon’s novel as “ a spontaneous combustion of inflammable racial power that has been
accumulating for a generation.” 47 Dixon portrayed racial violence as a natural response to
perceived political and social oppression which, according to southern collective memory, was
unleashed by Northerners during Reconstruction and resurrected by the Republican- Populist
Fusion government in the 1890s.
Dixon articulated a version of events similar to the popular narrative. Written to clarify
Northern confusion about the postbellum South, Dixon idealized the riot, omitting the political
coup and justifying the bloodshed as a response to black aggression. Retold in Dixon’s
nationalistic and imperialist language, the Wilmington Race Riot became a crucial event in the
nation’s history. 48
The Wilmington Race Riot received little attention over the next century. Despite the
absence of discussion, the riot was not forgotten. The Leopard’s Spots reinterpreted the defeat of
the Fusion government and the disfranchisement of African Americans as an essential part of
sectional reunion and national progress. The Civil War, Radical Reconstruction, and Fusion
politics were uncharacteristic periods in Southern history, and whites resorted to whatever means
necessary to restore the traditional racial order. This restoration was integrated into the cultural
landscape in North Carolina. Catherine W. Bishir noted the far- reaching cultural changes
underway in Raleigh and Wilmington after the “ Revolution of 1898.” Architectural tastes and
the commemoration movement emphasized continuity, harmony, and, perhaps most importantly,
Anglo- Saxon authority. Newly built homes reflected the popularity of the “ Colonial Revival”
style that linked the Old and New South in the minds of their owners, “ captur[ ing] in modern
terms the symbols of that glorious past.” Confederate memorials marked the landscape around
government buildings. Public ceremonies to dedicate these landmarks provided an articulation
of the meanings intended by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Colonial Dames
of America. These developments reiterated the belief that the Civil War, Reconstruction, and
Fusion politics were temporary disruptions in southern history, characterized by Anglo- Saxon
supremacy. The violence that occurred in Wilmington in 1898 slipped into the background, but
whites resurrected the memory of the bloodshed in order to quell dissent within Wilmington’s
African American community. For example, when North Carolina Governor Joseph Broughton
attended the launching of the Liberty Ship John Merrick in Wilmington in 1943, he raised the
46 Dixon, The Leopard’s Spots, pg. 414- 416.
47 Dixon, The Leopard’s Spots, pg. 419.
48 Andrews, Literary Career, pg. 184- 185; Gunning, Race, Rape, and Lynching, pg. 31; Wilson, Whiteness, pg. 121-
122.